Elucidation of the role of microRNA as a cancer treatment-resistant mechanism by autophagy

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26670607
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Digestive surgery
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: NAKATA Kohei 九州大学, 大学病院, 特別教員 (30419569)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): MAEYAMA Ryo 九州大学, 医学研究院, 共同研究員 (10611668) ; NAGAI Eishi 九州大学, 医学研究院, 准教授 (30264021) ; EGAMI Takuya 九州大学, 医学研究院, 共同研究員 (40507787) ; MIYASAKA Yoshihiro 九州大学, 医学研究院, 助教 (40507795)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: オートファジー / マイクロRNA / 膵臓癌

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As the existing chemotherapy has little effect on cancer stem cells, which have remained in the stationary phase, mechanism elucidation of the cancer stem cells is expected. It was recently reported that autophagy is involved in the maintenance of blood stem cells, and we have been reporting the relationship between the micro-RNA and pancreatic cancer malignancy. From these, we study the involvement of cancer stem cells maintenance mechanism by autophagy and micro-RNA.
We established the evaluation method of autophagy and the stemness of pancreatic cancer cells. Further, we reported that micro RNA-373 suppressed the invasion of cancer cells, through the inhibition of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. We also reported that overexpression of micro RNA-5100 reduced colony-forming, invasion, and migration ability of pancreatic cancer cells.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学